The “Welcome to the Jungle” Street Art Production in Selhurst

Well it has been quiet the busy summer in all this intense heat that’s been so torturous of late, however fortunately for us we have been stuck in breezy tunnels accompanied by the rattle of trains overhead staying nice and cool having been invited by local group CASSA to help on a community led initiative around the back of Selhurst station to brighten up the area and reduce fly-tipping in the form of some Street Art – an idea and intention right up our alley and behind the vast majority of projects we involve our time with, predominantly around Penge and Stockwell at current.

So in addition to the local community painting a mural featuring notable historical residents of Selhurst set coming into view as one approaches the train station rear entrance, we were offered the opportunity to find artists to paint a further 7 sections of wall and then were offered another wall from the garage immeditaley next door taking us to 8 sections of wall and allowing for one half of the rail tunnel to play host to a stunning 2.5 x 60 metre long 6 artist collaborative production entitled “Welcome to the Jungle” featuring work from Irony, Aspire, Artista, Core246, Candie Bandita & Woskerski.

For the record this was not our idea in any form but serves nicely as testament to the vision and creativity of the artists we are privileged to work with in our various community ventures who in this instance when put together on a series of adjoining spaces decided that there’s no reason not to go all in and work together across the whole space to make one elaborate cohesive scene merging and blending each artists’ respective style harmoniously. It has to be said it is a credit to all of the artists involved, for how once a theme was decided upon among themselves they worked so well together creating a scene combined from each artists ideas. Something which is so beautifully reflected in the images below where you will see how infused each artists work is in this collaborative feast of an artwork.

So what is this scene we are so clearly enamoured with? Well it is a Utopian post-apocalyptic scene in which mankind hasn’t destroyed the natural world around itself and those creatures which were here before humanity are here after us. Presented as a snap-shot of Central London in the form of a jungle view from the South Bank of the Thames looking across the river over to the City – set overgrown with trees and plant life, playing home to an abundance of urban animals in the form of foxes, squirrels, crows, a parakeet, a feral cat, a little owl as well as the more exotic Toucan and Tiger. Admittedly the Tiger set walking out of London Zoo’s rusted gates is rather at odds with the South Bank scene, but the scene does also present a lot of mystery. People have clearly been gone for some time and appear to have disappeared rather abruptly, what happened? Ultimately that doesn’t matter, all that matters is what is present in the scene. So we have “Welcome to the Jungle”with a whole host of iconic London landmarks in decline such as Tower Bridge set broken at the centre and HMS Belfast crashed on the bank covered in rust and vegetation, accompanied by notable objects in the foreground which define London as a city, such as the classic black taxi, red post-box and phone-boxes among others becoming increasingly consumed by the all spreading vegetation making a new habitat for the reconstructed urban ecosystem. As for the Tiger there is reason to its placing beyond the fact that it looks fantastic, but this section of the scene was inspired by the series of cuddly toys including a trio of tigers (including two Tiggers!) set around the security cameras on the railway bridge which for ourselves and the artists this act perfectly sums up the fun and positive attitude we encountered from the local community while the work was being crafted and wanted to include something of this corner of Selhurst’s immediate character into this South London view of this elaborate captivating scene which may be a post-apocalyptic scene but one that is so vibrant, full of depth and life, offering a vision of hope for the natural world.

As always we couldn’t do what we do here without the help of so many good friends we have made along the way and of course the first enormous thank you goes to all of the artists for immediately agreeing to help out with this project and then went all out – this wall had 20 days of artist time on it for the record – and gave so much time on and off the wall to make something magical happen.

We of course have to say a massive thank you to CASSA for getting us involved on this initiative and for providing us the base paint, ladders and letting us store our gear with them over the time it took to get the project started. Big thank you to the team at Network Rail for supporting such initiatives and all their help on this project and who along with CASSA trusted the artists to do what they do best by giving them free reign to do what they do best. Big shout out to Lightning Recovery for immediately giving up their property to the project, which meant more work and a little redesigning for the artists but definitely worth it. Also thank you guys for being so cool about the rearranging of the signs to work with the design.

Thank you to Kevin, Spike and GeekySea for helping clean and buff the old brick walls in the and to Street Art Atlas and Kevin for driving ladders, paint, drills and everything else around South London for this to work. Props to Bespoke Murals for supplying Core246 with his paint to join in this production. Cheers to the SE20 Magazine team who are constantly helping the cause and in this instance for putting us in touch with CASSA.

Last but not least we have to say thank you to the absolutely lovely, warm and welcoming community of Selhurst who had nothing to say but positive things about the initiative. I can say for ourselves and on behalf of each of the artists who have spent time on this project with us that it has been an absolute pleasure to not just paint some walls but have it so positively received and present such an immediate positive impact among the local community.

Thank you all it’s been an absolute pleasure and a brilliant way to spend the heatwave! We don’t like to toot our own horn – not that we did much, it’s the 6 artists that did all this – but we think everyone involved on the creative and administrative side of things should be proud of what has been achieved so far in Selhurst. It would be boring if things were easy and the hard work by all has definitely paid off in our view, this dark and dingy stretch of town looks absolutely incredible. But you can judge that for yourself from the pics below, of which there are many – which due to the lighting and length of the work, coupled with our lack of camera skills, do not do the work and colours justice – but this wall has just that much going on. So without further ado we present you with the “Welcome to the Jungle” Street Art Production by Irony, Aspire, Artista, Core246, Candie Bandita & Woskerski located in Dagnall Park, Selhurst, just around the back of the train station.

“Welcome to the Jungle”.

Section 1 – with work from Aspire, Irony, Woskerski & Artista.

Section 2 – with work from Irony, Candie Bandita. Aspire & Artista.

Section 3 – with work from Artista, Core246 Aspire & Irony.

Section 4 – with work from Artista.

Work by Aspire, Irony & Artista.

Work by Aspire, Irony & Artista.

Detail of work by Aspire with additions from Artista.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Work by Itony with additions by Artista.

Superb additions by Artista bringing the depth to this flat sign.

Detail of work by Irony & Artista.

Work by Aspire, Irony, Woskerski & Artista.

Detail of work by Irony with additions from Artista.

Detail of work by Irony & Artista.

Detail of work by Irony.

Detail of work by Irony.

Detail of work by Irony.

Detail of work by Irony.

Work by Irony & Woskerski with additions from Artista.

Work by Irony & Woskerski with additions from Artista.

Work by Aspire, Irony, Woskerski & Artista.

Work by Woskerksi, Irony & Artista.

Work by Woskerski & Artista.

Work by Woskerski & Artista.

Work by Woskerski & Artista.

Work by Woskerski, Artista & Irony.

Work by Irony, Candie & Aspire.

Work by Irony, Candie & Aspire.

Work by Irony, Candie & Aspire.

Work by Irony, Candie & Aspire.

Detail of work by Irony with a parakeet from Aspire and leaves from Artista.

Work by Irony with additions of Aspire, Artista & Candie.

Work by Irony.

Detail of work by Irony.

Taking centre stage along the length of the wall is the fantastic letter work from Candie hailing “Welcome to the Jungle” surrounded by scenery from Irony and animals by Aspire.

Work by Candie, Irony & Aspire.

Detail of work by Candie

Work by Candie with the crow added by Aspire.

Work by Irony with additions from Candie, Aspire & Artista.

Work by Aspire & Irony.

Work by Irony & Aspire.

Work by Candie, Irony, Aspire, Artista & Core246.

Work by Irony, Aspire, Artista & Core246.

Work by Artista, Core246 & Aspire.

Work by Artista, Core246 & Aspire.

Work by Artista, Core246 & Aspire.

Work by Artista & Core246.

Detail of work by Artista & Core246.

Detail of work by Artista & Core246.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Detail of work by Aspire & Core246.

Detail of work by Aspire.

Detail of work by Core246 & the owl by Aspire.

Work by Core246 & Artista.

Work by Core246 & Artista.

Work by Core246.

Detail of work by Core246.

Detail of work by Core246.

Work by Artista flanked by work from Core246 to the left and work from Irony to the right.

Work by Artista.

Detail of work by Artista.

Detail of work by Artista.

Detail of work by Artista, with the squirrel added by Core246 & leading into work from Irony to the right.

Detail of work by Artista & Core246.

Work by Artista with the squirrel added by Core246.

Work by Core246 Artista & Irony.

Work by Irony with the deer added by Core246.

Detail of work by Irony with addition by Core246.

Detail of work by Irony with addition by Core246 and Artista meeting to the right.